Beef Wellington

Post One Hundred and Sixty-six
My version of Indy is effectively completed now and with some serious moving about of models within my workroom/office, I have found room to house Indy in the prominent position she deserves, and without encroaching on other areas of the house.
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She has displaced Norske Love which now has a new position vacated by Alert which also has a new location.

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Had I completed the masting on Indy it would be in the order of that of Norske Love which is of a slightly smaller scale of 1:70.

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Norske Love has received a well overdue clean, having endured all the dust created during the construction of ‘Indy’.

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Not quite ready for the glass cover to be on yet, but at least the issue of ‘where are you going to put that’ is now resolved.
As a bonus the lower profile of Indy compared to Norske love will allow me to re-arrange the wall Pictures and perhaps get one of Indy.
 
I have decided to have a further dabble with the boats, and have started assembly of the 26’ Launch, pity not to make them up as they are provided with the kit.
 
B.E.
06/04/2024
 

Received the required rope from Ropes of scale and it does look rather good to start on the gun tackle. .The sizes for the 18lb Cannon Breeching ropes work out to be 0.7mm and 0.25mm for the gun tackle. I have made a small jig for drilling the inside of the bulwarks to take eyebolts and rings for securing the cannon. There is also an additional 2 holes for the outer eybolts for swinging the cannon fore and aft. The idea of the jig is to stop me drilling too deep and coming out the other side. Hopefully once I have drilled all the holes I am hoping to use the jig for ensuring I get the correct lengths of Breeching ropes.I

Good suggestion, did a bit of googling on the Congreve rockets and it does show several pictures of their use on boats and ships on the Wikipedia page.  Interesting how it looks like they were basically inserted into the hull of the ship like a bottle rocket.  I think this really helps, I was just trying to visualize how a ship would be designed for a rocket.  In my mind I was picturing a large emplacement in the deck sort of like a Bomb Vessel,  but now I see some pictures I can better understand they probably used a simple rail system off the side of the ship.
 

Looking very good moonbug, coming together very nicely.  Where did you find info on the 'swifter'?

Looking very good moonbug, coming together very nicely.  Where did you find info on the 'swifter'?

It took a few days to wrap up the foremast shrouds.  Same process as the others of course with a 7" circular line which is .88 mm at scale (.85 mm line for me).  Like the main, the foremost shroud is served its entire length. The biggest difference between the fore shrouds and others is that there are 7 shrouds representing an uneven number. As a result, there are three pairs of shrouds and a single shroud with an eye splice called the swifter. According to Lees, the swifter is the aft-most line and the last one looped over the masthead. 
 

 
 
 

 
 

Glad I've found your log sizzolo, you have made an outstanding start with some great details.  Quick comment on the coppering, believe that the method was somewhat nation specific.  US practice as you show was to have a parallel band at the waterline, RN practice was to copper from the keel upward.  None of that takes away from the wonderful work you've done and would not be noticeable at this scale.

Post One Hundred and Sixty-four.
 
Countdown to completion – still counting
I am still fretting about the inclusion of fittings for an Ensign staff.
 
The kit doesn’t include the fittings and few contemporary models show them.
I don’t have any specific evidence for the type used on ‘Indy’, but she would certainly have had them.
I lean towards a more substantial set-up than a simple block and cap-square fixed to the tafferal, given her origin as a Sixty-four.

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This is the set-up on Victory and the double knee fixing between the flag lockers would transfer well to the Indy.
A block sits atop the standards, recessed for the staff and is fitted with a cap-square.
A corresponding fitting (the step) to take the heel of the staff sits between the standards on the deck.
 
Nothing to be lost by having a play around and using bits of Boxwood, I cobbled together an Ensign support for ‘Indy’.

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Fairly straightforward, two standards and a top cut out on the scroll saw, the trickiest part cutting the mortises to fit over the standard tops.

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A simple jig aids the assembly.

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The completed item, the Cap-square made from a piece of brass fret will be blackened before fitting.

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Steel conveniently gives the sizes of Ensign staffs by rate.
For a Sixty-four = 38’ x 6¼” ø @ scale 181mm x 2.5mm ø
         50 gun     = 36’ x 6” ø    @ scale 171.5mm x 2.4mm ø
         44 gun     = 35’ x 5⅝” ø  @ scale 166.7mm x 2.2mm ø

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There is very little difference at scale, I used 3mm dowel for the staff and will adjust the length to suit my eye.
The staff will require a degree of taper and the fitting of a truck.
 
A satisfying days’ work - I’m inclined to keep it. ☺️
 
B.E.
02/04/2024

Starboard plating complete. I removed the false keel so that I can plate under it before applying an ebony one (larboard needs plating first though). I added the dovetail plate and horseshoe plate shapes using plumbing tape under the copper so that you can see the impression show through. These were apparently inlaid and plated over. 

Learnings - the copper tape shows every imperfection in the planking so it’s even more important to make sure your planking is perfect with no gaps. 

Day 384-50
good afternoon everyone, thank you for likes
 
a lot of tidying up has been done on the foremast, and a lot of lines have now been added  to the main, hence the clips just taking the weight
few extra lines are

 
 


and a few photos of how she looks this afternoon

Few! Almost completed adding the brass fitting to the cannon but cannot make up the rigging for the cannon as I am still waiting for the breeching rope from 'Ropes of scale'  I had some difficulty fitting the capsquare bolt to the 18lb gun carriages as these were tiny, so ended up drilling out the capsquare on  my Proxxon milling m/c and using blackened brass wire. 
I also ended up removing one of the eye bolts on each side as I realised that it was easier to attach the 3mm brass rings to the eye bolt before attaching to the carriage.
Whilst waiting for the breeching ropes I have a few small jobs which need attending to mainly adding the Cavel blocks and securing the brass lings to the or ports. I can also drill the holes for the breeching rope gun tackle eye bolts . This should be enough to be getting on with but will be taking a little break during the Easter period.
Another mistake . I should not of glued the Quoins into position until I checked the hieght of the gun barrels in the ports but hopefully they are fairly central . The  of the gun barrels look to be all a similar height so fingers crossed they look ok

I also forgot to mention that I ended up fitting the Bloomfield cannon , although I am still uncerain if these were actually fitted to the Diana. I quite like the look of them, although I did not attempt to fit the very tiny gun lock or the chain for the cap ssquare key.

Next up are the main and preventer stays as they're obviously much easier to add at this stage prior to the foremast shrouds.  As the largest line on the ship, the mainstay runs at 10" circular translating to 1.26mm at 1/64, or in my case 1.25 - which I had to take the time to spin since I didn't have that size immediately available.  For those of you using the magical Syren rope rocket, I achieved 1.25 mm by spinning four lines of Gutermann Mara 15 thread. 
    After doing a little search and noodling, I found some evidence of the preventer stay being below the main, while most had it above. I went slightly above for a selfish reason - I was able to lash the preventer stay collar right up against the bottom of the cheeks rather than adding a couple of cleats to keep it in place. The closed heart on the preventer stay collar is a 5.5 mm heart from Syren - a smidge larger than it should be, but they're so easy to assemble, sand, file, and deal with it's well worth it. 
 
 
 
The mouse is put together the same as the Mizzen both for the main and preventer. Both should be three times the diameter of the stay and both of mine came out larger than they should be, but about as small as I could get them and still be able to work with them. The heart on the mainstay is a twin to the one I made in an earlier post on the bowsprit collar - 5.95mm (6 really) boxwood and the whole thing is lashed with .45mm diameter (3.5" circular per Steel) tan rope at the lanyard.
 
 
 
The preventer stay mirrors the main with smaller dimensions - the stay itself is 7" (.88mm diameter) mirroring the main shrouds. I measured the mouse as best I could but ended up just 'eyeballing' it to get it a bit smaller than the main mouse and still look right. The twin closed 5.5 mm heart is lashed with .30 mm rope. After some measuring, remeasuring, and adjusting the heart placement a couple of times, I still ended up with a bit longer lanyard than I'd like, but acceptable to me. 
 
 
 
An overall look at the rigging thus far before moving on to the foremast shrouds.
 
 

some steps forward:
everything is still only provisionally resting, I haven't fixed anything yet
 







 
 

Post One Hundred and Sixty-three.
 
Countdown to completion - the final stages. 
This is the stage where I attend to all those little outstanding things, look through all the laser sheets and ask myself what the hell is that for, should I have fitted it?
 
It is surprising how long it takes to rig the stanchion and Hammock crane lines.

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I use Syren 0.45mm ø natural line. I seem to recall from somewhere that tarred line was dispensed with as it tended to mark the hammocks.

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I decided to fit the Fo’csle with stanchions; I think they may well have been fitted, and it balances well with the rest of the model. 
I used additional eyebolts to secure the ends of the lines.
 
I had modified the gunport lanyards for the lower ports to a double arrangement on the Port side, but the starboard side remained to be done.

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Even tho’ it is a bit of a pain to do, I couldn’t leave odd sides.
 
Boomkins.
These less than attractive booms used to spread the Fore tack invariably cause me trouble. In my build they didn’t easily meet the angle of the cap square that secures them as they cross the Main Rail of the head, and the line was also inhibited by the position of the seats of ease which required a little adjustment.

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I also added the capsquares, represented by black card strips.
 
B.E.
01/04/2024

Post One Hundred and Sixty-two.
 
Woolding the masts
The kit indicates use of 0.5mmø line throughout.
According to Steel the wooldings for the Fore and Mainmasts are of 3” circ line, and that for the Mizen 2½” circ. 
This equates to 0.37mm and 0.31mm scale diameters.
 
I used 0.3mm and 0.4mm cotton line from Modellbau Takelgarn in Germany.
 
Wooldings are generally 12” deep which scales to 4.76mm.
The method of applying as shown on the kit plans is the recognised approach to take, and will be familiar to readers of R.C. Anderson’s wordy but excellent book The Rigging of Ships in the days of the Spritsail Topmast 1600-1720
 
I wouldn’t be without it.

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The line was dyed using Colron Jacobean Dark Oak wood dye which gives a less black effect than commercial black rigging line.
 
The final touch is adding the wooden hoops that contain the woolding.

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These are simply made using very thin strips cut from a Manilla folder.

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Nearly there! and with great timing the  the display case arrived yesterday.
 
B.E.
 
28/03/2024.
 

Thank you Jason,  enjoy your Pinnace, it's a great little kit.
 
Post One Hundred and Sixty-one.
 
Building the 32’ Pinnace (Part four)
At this point I couldn’t resist the urge to see how the Pinnace would look onboard ‘Indy’.

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Temporarily placed in the suggested position on the skid beams.

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The kit provides a set of oars in laser cut Pear.
These benefit from a little fettlin’ beyond char removal.
The blades should be thinned down toward the outer end, and the shank rounded a little at the bottom third leaving the upper two thirds square to represent the loom.

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I think a spot of woolding is up next.
 
B.E.
26/03/2024
 

I am afraid you're right Jack. Nothing is impossible though. After trying more sanding down I realised that it wasn't working. The only thing I could do now was strip away the planking. I was worried about not doing the right thing so decided only to do the starboard side just in case it was a major mistake. It turns out, I think, it is possible to rectify the issue. If I am correct, the only problem will be the run of the planks will not match what's already been done. This will be covered over by the 0.5mm I was planning to cover the hull with after it was sanded down. If my plan works it means I won't need to spend 60 pounds or more on extra strips of timber. The main problem with the original build was the last few frames were not bevelled enough. I intend to bevel these further and add some extra timber to the stern bulkhead and taper this to a point where the planking will go across the stern. 

Merry Christmas to everyone at/on MSW, and, Happy new year when it comes. Wherever you are.
Thanks for the continuing likes so far. It is very encouraging and I'm very grateful.
It's been nearly another 2 weeks on the build and progress has continued slowly but surely. The inner wall of the gun deck has been filled between the bulkheads and has almost been sanded enough to be planked. There's just a couple of bits to finnish. The gunports have been filled and then filed to pretty much the correct shape but more importantly are in the positions I wanted them. With the help of a contour gauge I am now working on getting the lower hull symetrical on each side. There is a very slight depression left on the port side just below gunports 7 and 8 which I will fill with 1mm strips of balsa and then sand smooth. It's only about 0.5mm deep at the most but is still fairly prominent. I have also started working on the stern beside the deadwood to achieve the correct shape. I'm going to fill in the gap between the gun deck and the stern counter with balsa blocks, and then sand them to shape, followed by rebuilding  the lower sections of the stern counter sides (which were over sanded) once I have achieved the correct shape. I have now also built up the 9lb gun carraiges and filed a little more off the cascabels of the 18lb'ers. This weekend I am hoping to start lining the gun deck sides followed by lining the gunports and replacing a few bits of balsa that have broken off during sanding. All in all I'm pretty happy with progress so far and feel quietly optomistic on getting a pretty good looking hull in the end. I have also been looking at what I am going to do about the upper deck both the deck itself aswell as how I am going to attatch it to the hull. I am thinking I may need to replace it completely as the underneath is in quite a bad way. I will have a go at sanding it down before I decide. It looks like  I will also need to get it to fit before I can really get started on the gun deck gratings, stairs and fittings etc. 
Happy new again to you all. 
Cheers.
David.

The beams are offset from the frames as they are glued to the sides of the bulkhead rather than on top as shown in the photo below. It is how they are meant to be installed as per the instructions so it should not be a problem. I did modify my beams though so that they did not run through the hatch openings but that would be hard to achieve in your case with the deck already installed.
 
Regards,
David
 

I have been on holiday for a week now and am still away for another 10 days. However, this has allowed me some precious time to study the build logs and techniques to hopefully make a decent job on the hull, without the distraction of work and the ship. It's also given me the chance to think through what I still need to do and, more importantly which order it needs to be done. I wasn't happy with the inner lining between frame 2 and the after edge of gunport 2 so had removed them so this will be completed first. I will be adding the 3 X 5mm strip under the keel and will use the original rudder but will build it up on each side and add a block of wood to lengthen it before shaping it to a taper. From previous posts I've realised that many builders have noticed the stern galleries can sit a few mm higher so I will then mark the waterline and the position and width of the wale. This should show me where lower stern counter should sit along with the rest of the stern pieces. I am contemplating then removing the filling blocks that I over sanded and refitting them as well as building a frame to replace the area in front of the stern facia with supports running up in-between the lights. I will use the frames that are in place for the shape required before removing them completely. Having looked at where the water line will sit, I have realised that it is closer to the keel at the bow and higher at the stern so the bow needs to be raised before marking it out. Once I have attached a false wale then I should be in a position to finally correctly shape the stern and deadwood areas. That's my thinking at the moment but, if anyone has any suggestions or advice please let me know. Any advice is highly appreciated. 
I will update properly in a couple of weeks time.
David. 

Thanks for the continued likes. At last I can now supply an update. 
The 18lb carraiges are finally complete apart from the rigging tackles. I originally used the smallest copper eyepins I had, but, having made the eyelets on top of the capsqares, I thought they looked too large so made more of the eyelets for the carraige cheeks. They are maybe a little small now but they look much better I think. The hinges I made from the left over copper eyepins. I next turned my attention to working on the hull along with figuring out the 9lb carraiges. 
Following the lead of previous build logs, I will try to taper the stern post from 8mm wide at the top to 4mm at the bottom. I am also contemplating adding a 3 X 5mm strip along the keel to give it some extra depth, and improve the shape of the bow section.
In the instruction book it says to terminate the end planking 5mm away from the stern and add a 1X5mm strip to represent the stern post. Judging from the photos from the maritime museum it looks to me that the stern post is almost twice as wide at the keel than at the top. rather than being a consistant width all the way up. I have also added another problem if I proceed with deepening the keel, it will alter the shape of the deadwood aswell as requiring the waterline to be lowered followed by the wale also dropping down. This would only be a mm or so but it looks like the shape of the deadwood would change a fair bit. This in turn will alter the curve of the hull up to the stern counter so I am now planning to build from the keel up and see how it goes.
I have ordered more timber from CMB which will arrive on Monday. As well as wider strips of walnut for the stern post, I will also have 1.5mm lime strips for the skid beam clamps and spirketting. I tested 1mm strips which looked too thin and also 2mm strips which I thought were too thick. 
The 9lb carraiges were a challenge as both the Vanguard versions seem too short for the long 9 cannons. I decided to order 10 12lb carraiges as they were about the same length as the 18lb but the cheeks, I hoped, would be slightly lower. Thankfully I was correct and although the rear of the carraige looks slightly too wide, the other dimensions are perfect. I widened the holes for the eyepins before painting the sides of the carraiges and wheels. I have the eypins ready to fit and just need to deepen the trunnion holders for a better fit before adding the capsquares. 
While sanding down the stern counter I have removed too much balsa so this also needs to be built up again. I will try sorting this once I am happy with the shape of the stern upto the lower edge of frame 17. I may try rebuilding the complete stern above this point and maybe build a frame behind the stern facia so the false keel doesn't block the middle window but again I will wait and see. At least I am still proressing although much slower than I would like.
David.   

Been a long time since I've commented, but very much enjoyed catching up on your excellent work on this wonderful build.  Love the colours you've chosen on the pinnace which are a pleasant change and gives a very period feel.  I've just ordered this little kit myself from Chris, so hoping mine turns out half as well as yours.  Great stuff!

Been a long time since I've commented, but very much enjoyed catching up on your excellent work on this wonderful build.  Love the colours you've chosen on the pinnace which are a pleasant change and gives a very period feel.  I've just ordered this little kit myself from Chris, so hoping mine turns out half as well as yours.  Great stuff!

Been a long time since I've commented, but very much enjoyed catching up on your excellent work on this wonderful build.  Love the colours you've chosen on the pinnace which are a pleasant change and gives a very period feel.  I've just ordered this little kit myself from Chris, so hoping mine turns out half as well as yours.  Great stuff!